Shauna Coxsey wins silver in Moscow

The GB Climbing Team was out in force again this weekend at the IFSC Speed and Boulder World Cup in Moscow, Russia. Shauna Coxsey made finals for the second time in a row, coming home with a silver medal this time, while Emily Phillips also looked great coming in 10th in the semi-finals.

At the second IFSC World Cup of the season 450 athletes converged to test both their speed and their strength. The Speed World Cup was up first, where the GB Climbing Team put in some impressive sub eight second performances from Will Bosi and Billy Ridal, while Shauna Coxsey was just over 11 seconds and Emily Phillips just under 11.

Next up was the Boulder World Cup, where the difficulty was quickly ramped up. Great performances all round, and it was great to see so many athletes pulling hard and scoring tops in the qualifiers. Will Bosi, Nathan Phillips and Billy Ridal came close to making semi-finals in the men’s, but in the women’s both Shauna and Emily made it through to semis, and impressively Emily qualified in second place in her group.

It was a tough semi-finals for the women, with very few tops being made. Even one top would have scored you a place in the final, and Futaba Ito of Japan qualified with three zones in six attempts. Emily’s two zones in six attempts put her in 10th place. Shauna went through to finals in first place with two tops in five attempts and three zones.

But in finals, there was little to separate the women as the boulders had been set too easy. Janja Garnbret of Slovenia, Shauna Coxsey, and Fanny Gibert of France topped all four of the boulders, so the medals were decided on attempts or on count back. Janja flashed all four and took the gold medal, while Shauna and Fanny topped all four in six attempts, so Shauna took the silver medal as she qualified for the finals in first place, and Fanny took the bronze medal.

In the men’s, there was more separation, and Jernej Kruder of Slovenia topped all the boulders to take the gold, while Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic just missed out on back-to-back golds, but with three tops in five attempts was very pleased with his silver medal, while Yoshiyuki Ogata of Japan took bronze.

The GB Climbing Team gets a recovery weekend before heading to China for the next IFSC World Cup on 26 April.